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Judge Says NASA Can Withhold Challenger Tape

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A Federal judge today refused to order the public release of the audio tape of the last moments of the seven astronauts who died aboard the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, saying it would violate the privacy of the victims' families.

"Exposure to the voice of a beloved family member immediately prior to that family member's death is what would cause the Challenger families pain," Federal District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson said in a 10-page ruling.

The ruling came in a case involving a suit by The New York Times seeking to force the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to make public the audio tape of the astronauts' last moments before their spacecraft blew apart on Jan. 28, 1986.

The space agency had made public a transcript of the astronauts' final words after a request from The Times, but it refused to supply the recording itself, saying the "voice inflections" of the crew members could be distressing to the families.

The Times sued under the Freedom of Information Act, contending that the transcript might be insufficient to understand what actually happened in the final moments and that there was no legal justification for the agency's position.

Judge Johnson initially ruled in the newspaper's favor in 1987, saying that the Freedom of Information Act did not allow the agency to withhold the tapes. 'An Undeniable Interest'

But a narrowly divided Federal appellate court ruled in December 1990 that the tape recording fell under an exemption in the law that allows agencies to withhold medical, personnel and similar files if their disclosure would result in "a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy."

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Last year's 6-to-5 ruling meant that the case was sent back to Judge Johnson for a decision, required under the law, to balance the privacy rights against the value of the public disclosure of the tape recording.

Judge Johnson said she agreed with the newspaper's argument that "the public has an undeniable interest in learning about NASA's conduct before, during, and after the Challenger disaster." But she added that she remains "unconvinced that release of the disputed tape will serve that interest in any way."

Nancy Nielsen, a spokeswoman for The Times, said that the newspaper's lawyers had not yet received the opinion and that she would have no comment until then. The Times could appeal last December's appeals court ruling to the Supreme Court or let the matter drop.

According to the official transcript, the crew members were unaware of the impending disaster until the final moments of the flight. The last comment on the tape was, "Uh-oh," which the space agency has identified as the voice of the pilot, Comdr. Michael J. Smith of the Navy.

The tape stopped 73 seconds after launching, just before the spacecraft exploded because of a faulty seal in a booster.

In addition to Commander Smith, the other crew members were Francis R. (Dick) Scobee, the spacecraft commander; Dr. Judith Resnick, Dr. Ronald E. McNair and Lieut. Col. Ellison S. Onizuka of the Air Force, mission specialists; Gregory B. Jarvis, a payload specialist and Christa McAuliffe, a New Hampshire school teacher.

A version of this article appears in print on December 13, 1991, on Page A00032 of the National edition with the headline: Judge Says NASA Can Withhold Challenger Tape. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe